Stitch cam adjusting means for a flat knitting machine

ABSTRACT

In a flat knitting machine, a mechanism for adjusting the leader stitch cam for its position as the follower stitch cam during the return stroke in the opposite direction. A plurality of selector levers are moved to an inoperative raised position and held there by a magnet as the selected one of said levers is pushed off of the magnet and urged downwardly to an active position. The selector levers are individually adjustable to different stitch cam adjusting positions. A raised portion of the stitch cams engage whichever selector lever is selected.

United States Patent [191 Goller STITCH CAM ADJUSTING MEANS FOR A FLAT KNITTING MACHINE Dec. 18, 1973 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 911,400 11/1962 Great Britain 66/77 Primary ExaminerRonald Feldbaum Att0rneyRoberts B. Larson et al..

[57] ABSTRACT In a flat knitting machine, a mechanism for adjusting the leader stitch cam for its position as the follower stitch cam during the return stroke in the opposite direction A plurality of selector levers are moved to an inoperative raised position and held there by a magnet as the selected one of said levers is pushed off of the magnet and urged downwardly to an active position. The selector levers are individually adjustable to different stitch cam adjusting positions. A raised portion of the stitch cams engage whichever selector lever is selected.

10 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTED DEC] 8 I975 SHEET 5 BF 6 PATENTEDITEB 18 1913 3', 779,04

SHEEI s or 6 1 STITCH CAM ADJUSTING MEANS FOR A FLAT KNITTING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to flat knitting machines, and in particular it relates to a new and improved arrangement for adjusting the stitch cams in a flat knitting machine.

In such a flat knitting machine, a carriage having the stitch cams thereon moves relative to the needle bed, the cams cooperating with the needles or the jacks thereof to determine the knitting operation. These stitch cams are also known as locks and the carriage is known as a lock carriage.

Such a carriage will normally include a set of cams which are symmetrical about a vertical plane perpendicular to the direction of travel of the carriage. During carriage movement in one direction, one symmetrical part of the cam system leads while the other follows and vice versa during the carriage movement in the opposite direction. During each carriage stroke, the leading portion is generally inoperative and the following portion is the operative portion of the cam system. At

,the end of a given stroke, adjusting means adjust the leading cam portion to the appropriate position for proper action on the needles during the next stroke which is in the opposite direction, during which stroke the leading or leader portion of the cam system will become the operative following or follower cams. Such changes are required as a different type of knitting may be required during the return stroke, requiring different length stitches and thus a different quality of the fabric being produced. In conventional arrangements, such stitch cam adjustments are made by means of slides which are arranged on the lock carriage, which slides move in the longitudinal direction of the carriage and at the end of each stroke meet an adjustable stop through which they are pushed by the carriage.

However, in some flat knitting machines, the carriage stroke is variable. In these arrangements, such fixed stop adjustments at the end of the strokes cannot be used. In such cases a means must be provided for effecting adjustments of the stitch cams without the use of such stops.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION carriage, all of said levers being offered during that stroke to permanent magnets, those selector levers not required for a desired adjustment of the leader stitch cam being held inactive by the relevant permanent magnets, whereas the particular lever which is selected to determine the extent of adjustment of the leader stitch cam (prior to it becoming the follower stitch cam during the next stroke of the carriage) is caused by the action of a push-off coil to drop off its permanent magnet into an active stitch-cam adjusting position.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, means are provided for manually adjusting the position of each of the plurality of selector levers. This means may comprise a pivoted lever associated with each selector lever, one end of which pivoted lever engages its respective selective lever while an adjustable screw engages the other end of said pivoted lever.

The stitch cams include a raised member which is adapted to engage any one of the plurality of selected levers, whichever one has been actually selected.

Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide, in a flat knitting machine, a new and improved stitch cam adjusting mechanism.

It is another object of this invention to provide, in a flat knitting machine of the type having a variable carriage stroke, an improved means for adjusting the stitch cams.

It is another object of this invention to provide, in a flat knitting machine of the type described, an improved means for adjusting the stitch cams in which a plurality of selector levers are raised and held by a permanent magnet, and the selected one of these is lowered from its magnet to an operative position where it is engaged by a leader stitch cam to determine its position during carriage movement in the opposite direction, during which said leader stitch cam will be the following operative stitch cam.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed descrip tion to follow, together with the accompanying draw- Il'lgS.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS There follows a detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention to be read together with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the carriage plate with the stitch cam adjusting device mounted thereon.

FIG. 2 is a cross-section taken on the line II-ll of FIG. 1 showing one of two offering slides and a selector lever.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the carriage plate taken on the line IIIIII of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a plan view, partly in section, of the carriage plate with the selector levers, the guide slides and the offering slides.

FIG. 5 is a cross-section through the carriage plate taken on the line V-V of FIG. 4..

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the lock plate with the stitch cams thereon.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT tion, whereas the leader stitch cam 2 is raised up to comb level by an elevating slide 3 and is thus not in use. The comb level is that corresponding to the height at which the hook of a needle is located when exactly in line with the easily observable edge or verge of the needle bed. This height serves as the starting position for setting up of the stitch cam adjusting means. To

form a stitch, a needle must descend below the comb level. Thus, the stitch cam must be regulated to a lower position which naturally varies according to machine machine pitch, knitting yarn thickness and the required stitch length (determining tightness of knitting and hence "quality").

Under the idle leader stitch cam 2 a preliminary adjustment is carried out for the working traverse of said cam in the subsequent stroke of the carriage from right to left. Approximately in the middle of the carriage stroke a leading offering slide is lifted for a short time by means of pivotable latch 6, a locking pin 8 and a roller 7 by engagement with a cam device 4 (FIG. 2) which is fixed on the needle bed. As regards a following offering slide 5', a pivotable latch 6' associated therewith moves back again into its normal vertical position at the end of the cam device 4. When the offering slide 5 is lifted against the resilience of an associated compression spring (FIG. 2), the selector levers 13 of the leader switch cam 2 are simultaneously offered, by means of a bolt 11 and a curved bar 12 (see FIGS. 2 and 4), to permanent magnets, one for each lever 13, (FIG. 2). To permit of this action pins 17 are vertically moved by the selector levers 13 against the resilience of controlling springs 16. The selector levers 13 can be moved into position A (FIG. 2) because the leader stitch cam 2 is disposed at the comb level by means of the elevating slide 3 (in FIG. 6). In the specific example illustrated, there are five selector levers l3 corresponding to five different adjustments of the stitch cam 2. Accordingly, four of these levers are at any one time held inactive by their corresponding permanent magnets 14. After this offering movement, the five selector levers l3 adhere to the permanent magnets 14. The particular selector lever 13 which is to adjust the stitch cam during the following stroke of the carriage drops off its permanent magnet 14 into a position B (FIG. 2) under the action of a push-off coil which is not shown in the drawing; as a consequence, the tension of corresponding spring 16 holds the said selector lever 13 in the position B through the medium of its corresponding pin 17. The remaining four selector levers 13 are held in position A by their permanent magnets 14. Once the lock carriage, in the illustrated example, reaches the righthand reversal point, the previously leading stitch cam 2 is moved out of the position A (FIG. 2) into the following position B (FIG. 2) by a spring which acts as the stitch cam moves offof the elevating slide 3 and at the same time the said stitch cam 2 hits the selector lever 13 which has dropped off its magnet at the point X (FIG. 2). The new stitch cam adjustment for the stroke of the carriage from right to left is thus set. Each selector lever 13 is pivoted on a guide slide 18 by means of a pin 20, said guide slide being mounted in a guideway (see FIGS. 2 and 4). These guide slides are moved by intermediate levers 21 (depicted in FIGS. 1, 2 and 5), a displacement movement of a desired extent being transmitted to each such lever through a screw 22, a nut 23 and a slider 24. By these means the length of the stitch is adjusted. An element 25 serves to lock the screw 22 against turning after adjustment.

A slide 27 or 27 is moved by the stitch cam l or 2 through the medium of a pin 26 or 26' respectively and at the same time moves a bolt 28 in a vertical direction, with which bolt the length of the stitch can be measured with the assistance of a measuring device not shown in the drawing.

The elevating slide 3 is changed over by means of a lever, which is not illustrated, and always moves in the same direction as the lock carriage. Through either the slope 3 or the slope 3" on the slide 3, depending on the direction of movement of the lock carriage, either a pin 1 on the stitch cam l or a pin 2' on the stitch cam 2 is pushed upwards to cause this cam to be pushed upwards at the same time. Whenever the stitch cam 1 is lifted in this way, the stitch cam 2 is positioned to return to its lower position, and vice versa.

Although this invention has been described in considerable detail with respect to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be apparent that this invention is capable of modifications and variations apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. In a flat knitting machine having a variable stroke carriage and at least one pair of stitch cams thereon, wherein during the carriage stroke in either direction, the leader stitch cam is inoperative and the follower stitch cam is operative, a means for effecting stitch cam adjustments, said means comprising:

a plurality of selectively operable selector levers,

each capable of providing a different adjustment of the leader stitch cam which is inoperative during a given stroke of the carriage to adjust said stitch cam for the next stroke in the opposite direction, during which stroke the said leader cam will be the operative follower cam, means for offering all of said levers during that given stroke to permanent magnets which are capable of holding them in an inoperative position, those selector levers not required for a desired adjustment of the leader stitch cam being held inactive by their respective permanent magnets, and means for moving off its permanent magnet into an active stitch-cam adjusting position the particular lever which is selected to de termine the extent of adjustment of the leader stitch cam.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, including means for adjusting the selector levers to respectively different extents to provide for different adjustments of the said leader stitch cam.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each selector lever includes an abutment face which is presented, when in its active stitch-cam adjusting position, for contact with a part of the leader stitch cam to determine the working position of the latter.

4. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the different cam adjustments effectable by the respectively different selectively operable selector levers set the leader stitch cam in different working positions graduated in relation to one another.

5. An apparatus according to claim 2, each selector lever being movable in two senses including back and forth movement longitudinally for saidadjustment, and vertical up and down movement for contact with and away from its respective permanent magnet.

6. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the means for adjusting each selector lever includes a pivoted lever having one end against the selector lever and including a screw against the other end of the pivoted lever, said screw operable to turn the pivotable lever to change the adjustment of the selector lever.

7. An apparatus according to claim 2, including a stitch cam measuring mechanism comprising a slide I movable as a consequence of adjustment of a leader sets of said selector levers and their respective operating mechanisms, one for each direction of carriage travel.

10. An apparatus according to claim 2, each of said selector levers being pivotable about an axis for vertical movement into and out of an active position, and horizontally for said adjustment, said adjusting means including a pivoted lever having one end against the selector lever and including a screw against the other end of the pivoted lever, said screw operable to turn the pivoted lever to change the adjustment of the selector lever by moving the same back and forth, and including a spring for each selector lever urging the selector lever downwardly to an active position when that selector lever is lowered from its magnet, and said selector lever including an abutment face which is presented, when that lever is in its active stitch-cam adjusting position, for contact with a part of the leader stitch cam to determine the working position of the latter. 

1. In a flat knitting machine having a variable stroke carriage and at least one pair of stitch cams thereon, wherein during the carriage stroke in either directIon, the leader stitch cam is inoperative and the follower stitch cam is operative, a means for effecting stitch cam adjustments, said means comprising: a plurality of selectively operable selector levers, each capable of providing a different adjustment of the leader stitch cam which is inoperative during a given stroke of the carriage to adjust said stitch cam for the next stroke in the opposite direction, during which stroke the said leader cam will be the operative follower cam, means for offering all of said levers during that given stroke to permanent magnets which are capable of holding them in an inoperative position, those selector levers not required for a desired adjustment of the leader stitch cam being held inactive by their respective permanent magnets, and means for moving off its permanent magnet into an active stitch-cam adjusting position the particular lever which is selected to determine the extent of adjustment of the leader stitch cam.
 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, including means for adjusting the selector levers to respectively different extents to provide for different adjustments of the said leader stitch cam.
 3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each selector lever includes an abutment face which is presented, when in its active stitch-cam adjusting position, for contact with a part of the leader stitch cam to determine the working position of the latter.
 4. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the different cam adjustments effectable by the respectively different selectively operable selector levers set the leader stitch cam in different working positions graduated in relation to one another.
 5. An apparatus according to claim 2, each selector lever being movable in two senses including back and forth movement longitudinally for said adjustment, and vertical up and down movement for contact with and away from its respective permanent magnet.
 6. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the means for adjusting each selector lever includes a pivoted lever having one end against the selector lever and including a screw against the other end of the pivoted lever, said screw operable to turn the pivotable lever to change the adjustment of the selector lever.
 7. An apparatus according to claim 2, including a stitch cam measuring mechanism comprising a slide movable as a consequence of adjustment of a leader stitch cam, and a bolt which is displaceable by the said slide for cooperation with a measuring device.
 8. An apparatus according to claim 2, including a lifting member movable with the stitch means and positioned to engage a cam fixed to the needle bed to rise upwardly as the carriage moves, said lifting member engaging the said selector levers to urge them to said inoperative position against their respective permanent magnets.
 9. An apparatus according to claim 2 including two sets of said selector levers and their respective operating mechanisms, one for each direction of carriage travel.
 10. An apparatus according to claim 2, each of said selector levers being pivotable about an axis for vertical movement into and out of an active position, and horizontally for said adjustment, said adjusting means including a pivoted lever having one end against the selector lever and including a screw against the other end of the pivoted lever, said screw operable to turn the pivoted lever to change the adjustment of the selector lever by moving the same back and forth, and including a spring for each selector lever urging the selector lever downwardly to an active position when that selector lever is lowered from its magnet, and said selector lever including an abutment face which is presented, when that lever is in its active stitch-cam adjusting position, for contact with a part of the leader stitch cam to determine the working position of the latter. 